Leviticus 20:8

Summary

The verse commands the addressees to keep and perform the divine statutes, closing with a self-declaration in which Yehovah identifies himself as the one who sets the people apart as holy.

Key words

• she.mar.Tem ("you will keep", H8104G) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; continues a preceding chain of instructions, giving the sense of an ongoing obligation rather than a single act.
• chu.ko.Ta + i ("statutes" + "my", H2708 + H9020) — feminine plural noun in construct with the 1st person suffix, marking the statutes as belonging specifically to the speaker (Yehovah).
• 'a.si.Tem ("you will do", H6213A) — qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine plural; paired with the previous verb, forming a two-part command: "keep... and do."
• 'a.Ni Yah.weh ("I [am] Yehovah", H0589 + H3068G) — independent personal pronoun followed by the divine name, forming a self-identification formula.
• me.ka.dish.Khem ("[who] sets apart as holy" + "you", H6942G + H9036) — piel participle in construct with the 2nd person plural suffix; the piel stem indicates an intensive/causative action ("making holy"), and the participle form frames it as a continuous, characteristic activity of the subject rather than a one-time event.

What the text says

The verse opens with a narrative vav attached to she.mar.Tem, linking it to prior material as part of an ongoing sequence of commands. The structure pairs two sequential perfect verbs — she.mar.Tem ("you will keep") and 'a.si.Tem ("you will do") — each followed by a direct object marker ('et- and 'o.Tam) pointing back to chu.ko.Tai, "my statutes." This creates a two-step formula: first keeping, then performing, the statutes belonging to the speaker.

The second half of the verse shifts from command to self-declaration: 'a.Ni Yah.weh, "I [am] Yehovah," followed immediately by me.ka.dish.Khem. This word is a piel participle in construct with the suffix "you" (plural), literally "the one sanctifying you" or "your sanctifier." The participle form (rather than a finite verb) presents this as a characteristic, ongoing role of the subject, distinct from the completed or sequential aspect of the preceding verbs she.mar.Tem and 'a.si.Tem. Grammatically, the verse moves from imperative-force sequential verbs addressed to the people to a nominal self-identification clause centered on the participle.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders chu.ko.Tai ("my statutes") as τὰ προστάγματά μου ("my ordinances/commands"), a近 close semantic match. The Vulgate translates the same word as præcepta mea ("my precepts"). Both versions preserve the two-verb sequence (keep/do) and the closing self-identification, though the Vulgate omits the initial conjunction present in the Hebrew u- and LXX καὶ, beginning directly with the imperative "Custodite."